Sprouting
is chapter one of the Nogi Wakaba is a Hero light novel series. Hero Diary Entry : Words in brackets were previously censored by the Taisha. Nogi Wakaba "This afternoon, I peered over the Seto Inland Sea from Marugame Castle. Each time I stand here, I renew my vow. I swear to take back the world stolen from us. We as heroes are the weapons to achieve that goal. Small may our numbers be, but we must fulfill our duty. Among our comrades, A proactive stance like Yuna's is hard to find in this world. I can see an unstable side to Chikage, but.." Summary July 30th, 2018. The chapter begins with Wakaba standing atop the inner citadel stone walls of Marugame Castle, overlooking the Seto Inland Sea. Wakaba then starts having a flashback to the day the Vertexes first appeared 3 years ago and began wiping out humanity. July 30th, 2015. Wakaba Nogi, by that time a fifth grader, was taking refuge at a shrine's kagura-den in Shimane prefecture. Her class was holding a field trip in the middle of summer break in said prefecture due to the number of lesson days, when an intense earthquake occured. The teachers decided it was an emergency situation and evacuated the students to the shrine, which was the only shelter in the area. As a result, the number of people inside was quite high. As the class president, Wakaba takes a roll call of her classmates and informed her homeroom teacher that all students were present. She hears her teachers talk about how not only on Shimane, but everywhere around the country several earthquakes were taking place. Fissures and tsunamis were happening as a result, and damage spread around Japan. Wakaba's classmates, however, actually find the current turn of events exciting, with some chatting with each other, and those with smartphones checking news sites. Wakaba then overhears a group of three girls chatting amongst themselves. She briefly contemplates warning them, but decides against doing so, since letting them chat like that would help soften their anxiety. Unfortunately for her, however, the group of girls see her and, thinking she was going to scold them (Wakaba has a reputation of being overly earnest and serious), shut up, to Wakaba's chagrin. She is then surprised by a voice playfully calling her name, and as she turns around she sees a camera flash before her eyes. It's her classmate and childhood friend, Hinata Uesato. Hinata cheerfully proclaims she has taken yet another good photo for her treasured Wakaba's image collection. Wakaba attempts to get her to delete them, but Hinata says it's her life's work. She teases Wakaba about her strict face and demeanor, and says that ever since first grade, she's always been an honor student and class president, so her classmates think of her as an "iron woman". Hinata then takes her hand and leads her back to the same group of female classmates. Despite Wakaba's protests, Hinata introduces her to the group of girls, and after getting to know her better thanks in no part to Hinata, cheerfully exclaim they're now friends with Wakaba. After talking for a while with her newfound friends, Wakaba goes outside the kagura-den to take a bit of fresh air. Hinata goes outside too and stands close to her. They talk about what happened earlier with the group of girls. Wakaba thanks Hinata for what she did back there, and says that if she weren't around, she would have for sure distanced herself further from her classmates. Hinata simply replies she just doesn't like when people misunderstand her, but Wakaba says she wants to reward Hinata for her friendship and repeats her grandmother motto: "A reward for everything, that's the Nogi way of life". Hinata then requests her to help grow her Wakaba image collection by wearing some sort of cosplay. While the two girls engage in their usual conversations, suddenly, the ground shakes intensely. Wakaba notes it's a completely different kind of tremor compared to earthquakes. Hinata soon says there's something scary in the sky, Wakaba notices nothing but stars or birds but they soon become larger and she notices a white blob. The Stardust have arrived and Wakaba notices they ate her new friends. Angered she hits them with a wooden sword and it gets broken immediately. Hinata soon tells her to reach her hand out and Wakaba feels a rusty sword, as soon as she touches it, it becomes as good as new and feels immensely power. She slices the new vertex with one strike and Hinata tells Wakaba to lead the people to a "safe place" guided to her by her oracle. Wakaba questions how she knew it was safe and Hinata states it was just a hunch leaving Wakaba baffled. Wakaba soon ends her recollection of the tragic event from three years ago. She recalls that the white blobs were now called vertex and Nagano and Shikoku were the only places still under human control. Special girls habited abilities and Hinata and Wakaba were two of the girls. Miko and Hero, Wakaba swears to take back the land stolen from them and give the vertex their reward, that is the Nogi Way of Life. Navigation Category:Chapter Category:Light Novel